Category Archives: FR33MANTV

Wow, what an incredible day. It began at noon, when a man who had walked in weeks prior to buy his first bitcoin, returned to spend some on a 3D-printer kit to build with his son. Then, nationally-syndicated radio hosts Ian Freeman, Mark Edge, and Darryl W. Perry arrived and set up microphones to record an episode of their show Free Talk Live. Finally, we all headed over to the Seacoast Repertory Theatre for the 5-year Anniversary Screening of Victimless Crime Spree!

This Independence Day, I am pushing the meme of New Hampshire Independence. It is its own country of 1,331,000 people with a unique set of cultural, economic, and philosophical values. It’s about time you and I start referring to NH as a country. Forget “draining the swamp” — Leave the swamp!

When most people think of New Hampshire, a few images come to mind: colorful trees, maple syrup, covered bridges, people with guns, and the great outdoors. They probably don’t think of high-tech cryptocurrency. But that’s changing, thanks to the great libertarian migration of the 21st century.

Anarchists and libertarians are moving en masse to escape oppressive political masters in their homelands to find peace and prosperity in tax-free, freedom-loving New Hampshire. With them, they are bringing their favorite freedom-enhancing technology: blockchain-based money.

Overstock.com reported that the day they started accepting bitcoin for payment, a third of all their orders came from New Hampshire. New Hampshire is only state that explicitly exempts crypto-currency businesses from requirements to register as money transmitters, attracting job-creating startups like Lamassu, LBRY, AnyPay, and more. No longer does Silicon Valley hold a monopoly on tech: the Swarm.City team could have launched from anywhere in the world, and they chose Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This week the Monadnock Shopper, a New Hamphire newspaper with 40,000 readers, published a front-page above-the-fold article about bitcoin and all the businesses in the area that accept it.

It can be hard to keep track of all the cryptocoin development happening in New Hampshire. That’s why David Jurist started Shire Cryptocoin, a website that tells you the closest businesses where you can buy and spend your cryptocoins, which ones they take, and when there are meetup groups in your area where you can learn and get your questions answered.

Shire Cryptocoin recently appeared at SomaliaFest 2017, and they were the best vendor there in my opinion, because they helped people get better money than what they had in their pockets. I used their service to trade bitcoin for litecoin, dash, and ethereum. I had a great experience, and I wanted to spread the word. Here’s a video I made about them:

You won’t believe this. Even I can’t believe it. I had to stop investigating this story because the rabbit hole of corruption was so deep that I lost sight of where it began. So let’s start at the end and work backwards…

Chris Brackett, the head of the jail in Dover, New Hampshire decided to impose a policy of obstructing all inmate mail. No more letters from the outside world. An article published by the Portsmouth Herald cites recent inmate overdoses as the potential justification for this excessively restrictive action.

There are two problems with that theory. First, the jail doesn’t allow packages of any sort, including birthday cards or anything other than ink and paper (at least, until last week’s new policy took effect). Second, it is policy for jail employees to physically open and check the contents of all inmate mail for any contraband and remove it before it reaches the inside. There is no way inmates were receiving heroin through ink and paper letters, and preventing their delivery will have no effect on inmate overdoses.

Who’s in charge of hiring these top-notch individuals working at the Dover jail? Well, none other than Bruce Pelkie, the Superintendent of Strafford County Jails, who was himself arrested earlier this year on felony charges of impersonating an officer. Apparently while enjoying more than a year on paid vacation on taxpayer’s dime, Bruce thought it would be great fun to get his personal vehicle outfitted with red and blue police lights and pull people over. Is he a cop? No. Does he have the authority to pull anyone over? No. Then surely the local police would notice this happening and stop him? Nope. A State Trooper was finally the one to catch the Superintendent of the jails pulling people over in his personal car. And all while he is out on “administrative leave” for what he claims are medical reasons. Surely this means he loses his job, his pay, and the taxpayer-funded medical insurance he’s been collecting? Also no. The superintendent of the jails continues to receive paychecks for not doing his job, and committing crimes on the side.

There are countless more crimes and stories of corruption emanating from this public embarrassment of a facility — too many to list in this one article. I had no idea what a can of worms I’d be opening when I dug into the first story about jail guards obstructing inmate mail. Is this even legal? Should groups like the ACLU and prisoner’s rights groups file a lawsuit against Chris Brackett and the people who are obstructing mail delivery to inmates? Please share this article and video with your friends and family and ask them what they think. Building a free society depends on people like you to think, speak, and act — especially when it is easier to do nothing.

On May 24 2017 I attended, “Exposing the Free State Project,” 90 minutes of slander and lies by Zandra Rice Hawkins. Hawkins is a propagandist with Granite State Progress, a political arm of the New Hampshire Democrats. She apparently missed her calling as a preacher of the fire and brimstone variety, given the fear, mistrust, and terror she attempted to sow throughout the crowd. In the end, attendees seemed rightfully doubtful of Hawkins’ spurious claims that Free Staters are wolves in sheep’s clothing, secretly plotting to dismantle every beloved societal institution they can. Instead, Free Staters were seen as open, willing to engage others on the issues that matter most to them, and find common ground where possible to make a better life for everyone.

It’s beautiful and simple, yet transformative. Convert paper currency into cryptocurrency with a single button. Spend it in the bar, diner, or dozens of other bitcoin-accepting businesses in Manchester. Check it out at Murphy’s Taproom today!

Last night I went to Strange Brew Tavern in Manchester for their 200th bitcoin meetup. It is the longest running consecutive bitcoin meet up in the world — going for almost 4 years now.

People talked about mining ethereum and being dash masternodes — they talked about successful strategies for encouraging businesses and individuals to take cryptocurrencies as payment — and they talked about achieving more personal freedom in New Hampshire. I was impressed by the turnout. About 2 dozen or so people. A range of all types: gay and straight, techies, real estate people, media people, old, middle aged, and young mothers and their children. The group gets the whole back room in the tavern and received excellent service the whole night.

I asked if I could tip my waiter in bitcoin, but he said that he doesn’t have a wallet anymore. He got a new phone and lost all the bitcoin the patrons had given him over the past years. After that, he was really sour on bitcoin and was unwilling to accept it, even as a tip on top of the cash tip I left him. After about 2 hours of chatter, people started to clear out. I was disappointed that there wasn’t a big photo op moment where everyone crowded in and memorialized this event. I supposed I could have tried organizing that, but I didn’t.

I should mention also that there’s another bar in Manchester, Murphy’s Taproom, that not only accepts bitcoin but they also have one of the best bitcoin vending machines for hundreds of miles around. I don’t understand why this bitcoin meetup group doesn’t support Murphy’s and instead goes to a place that doesn’t accept bitcoin, but I see it as an opportunity. There can be a meetup for the crowd that likes cheap beer and a meetup for a crowd that likes to spread bitcoin.

For now, I’ll continue spreading the word about bitcoin in my hometown of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where my Bikram Yoga Studio started accepting bitcoin this week. Namaste.

I should add:

Weekly meetups like the one in Manchester give the bitcoin community a pulse. It says to the world, “We’re alive and growing — bitcoin hasn’t gone anywhere.” In fact, the people at this meetup would be just as happy to help a n00b set up their first bitcoin wallet as they would to discuss Ethereum mining or their Dash Masternode. Manchester’s monumental 200th meetup also shows outsiders that crypto is mainstream — not a bunch of geeks in forums. Bitcoiners are your neighbors, your waitress, and the guys playing pool at the bar.

Armed men wearing badges were parked on the bridge in Manchester, New Hampshire. Friday, April 27, 2016. They used bright lights to stun, mesmerize, and intimidate passing travelers into pulling over. Once stopped, the armed men demanded documents and investigated their victims. Finally, they demanded money from the drivers backed by threats of kidnapping.

A watchdog group from Manchester organized a creative advertising effort to warn drivers of the danger ahead. With laser lights, reflective displayboard, and LED programmable signs, they stood by the bridge and informed those passing that it is their last chance to avoid the pirates.

Some went bar hopping, informing patrons of the extortion trap and offered cards with tips for interacting with the badged criminals.

This went from 10pm to 2am. All night, people expressed their appreciation as they passed and diverted their routes. I estimate that 100 cars were saved.

This April 20th, about a hundred people from all over the New Hampshire area gathered at the Concord State House for the 7th annual rally to end Prohibition. I was there with my camera to capture the event. People smoked pot. They played music. They wrote messages with chalk. They gave speeches and live-streamed interviews. They even gave away pornographic calendars sponsored by local businesses. Happy people living in peace.

Supposedly armed bureaucrats are “just following orders” when they kidnap and cage these peaceful people for having the wrong plant in their pockets, but when these same people gather together in large numbers, the evil law enforcers leave them alone. It’s a simple numbers game. An individual is an easy target. By outnumbering the bad guys, good guys can prevent and negate potential conflicts.

That is the lesson of the 420 Rally in Concord, and it is the strategy employed by the people moving to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project. People who believe in liberty are coming together in one geographic location to live free and achieve liberty in our lifetime. The more of us there are, the less likely a potential conflict.

The day after this rally, people calling themselves the NH Senate voted to continue the war on peaceful cannabis consumers. Here’s what one of the so-called “Senators” told the Concord Monitor: “We are in a war…The last thing we need is to tell our citizens that it’s okay to use a little marijuana or any other illegal substance.”

I’ve got news for you, dude. It *is* okay to use marijuana. It’s NOT okay to be threatening peaceful pot smokers. We’re past the point where we have to defend marijuana. We’re at the point where the bureaucrats have to defend being against it. With each passing day, people are gaining more courage to live free as bureaucrats are becoming more impotent. These guys are criminals wearing badges, we smoked pot right in front of them, and their hired henchmen didn’t lift a finger to stop us. So they can either write some more words on paper for us to ignore, or they can put down the badges and join humanity.